Toby’s Tierlists: Top 5 Spookiest Places on Campus

By Toby Leffew

It’s October, and it feels like everyone is fully embracing the spirit of Spooky Season. In town, lawns are decorated with pumpkins and fake skeletons. McPherson students excitedly chat about their plans, whether it be parties or just hanging out. Here at The Spectator, we’re no different. We love the creepy and mysterious! In the spirit of Halloween, I’ve gathered the top five most bone-chilling locations on campus, which will certainly creep you out!

            Disclaimer: This is completely subjective. What I find slightly eerie, you might find ridiculous. I’m a total scaredy-cat, so this probably won’t have much of an effect on some of you.

Also, for maximum effect, imagine all of these locations at night, as opposed to shining in the bright light of the day. Everything looks creepy in the dark!

5 – Those Big Grates on the Pathways

            Alright, this might sound a bit ridiculous, but there’s something unspoken about how creepy these grates are. Maybe it’s a me thing, but it just skeeves me out. It’s especially eerie on cold, rainy days. They’re all grimy down there, like the inside of a cave. 

When I stand over these grates, I think of two things. 

I imagine the grate breaking, making me fall in. I’d be unable to get out, maybe unable to move. I could call out for help all I wanted, but in the dead of night, who would hear me? I’d be completely trapped, alone, in the dark…

I also imagine looking down and seeing something that doesn’t belong there. After all, the area below the grates would be the perfect place for all sorts of creepy crawlies to hang out. It’d be the perfect place for snakes, cockroaches and all myriads of disgusting creatures. Imagine if they came up, and began crawling out of the grate…

It’s only my imagination, but it’s something to think about.

 4 – That Taxidermy Case on Melhorn’s First Floor

            Fun Fact: This is what made me realize that I hate taxidermy!

I must state that I’m fine with taxidermy for the sake of museum and scientific reasons. However, that doesn’t mean that even within those contexts, I won’t be creeped out by them. 

Maybe it’s just me, but I hate looking in the glassy eyes of things that were once alive. Those birds, which were once able to fly and squawk, now sit there, stuffed and dressed up to look alive again. But they aren’t, they’re just the most macabre and literal interpretations of stuffed animals. Even though the eyes are most likely glass replacements, they look miserable. At any moment, they look like they’re about to move again, but they don’t. Maybe that’s why I don’t like them; they look so lifelike, but they’re nothing more than well-preserved corpses.

3 – Mohler Hall at Night

            Let’s imagine this for a second…

It’s 10:15 PM at night. You’ve just finished some business on the top floor of Mohler Hall, and you’re heading back to your dorm. The once-bustling hall is now vacant, and the only sound is the faint buzzing of the overhead lights. You go down the steps, and you feel yourself hesitating…

What makes you stop? Why do you freeze in your tracks?

You try to get out, but you can’t shake the odd feeling that something is watching you. You eventually leave, and then you realize…

What just happened?

I’ve experienced this many times, but I’ve never been able to properly explain why Mohler Hall just feels so wrong in the evening hours. Maybe it’s just because I’m only used to seeing it in the light of the day, or maybe something sinister is afoot…

Maybe next time you’re in Mohler Hall past dark, you’ll see something, or someone, over your shoulder…like I have before.

2 – Brown Auditorium

            Is it just me, or is Brown Auditorium one of the creepiest places to be? It might seem a bit silly to others, but something about being alone in that theater gives me the creeps. 

            As you walk into the theater with the lights off, the sound of your own heart beating in your chest is amplified. Your eyes scan the top of the seats, and you could swear you see someone sitting in at least one of them. But whenever you look back, they’re gone. It could very well be a trick of your eyes, but who knows?

            The stage stands ominously. In the light, it’s just a beautiful place to perform. But in the dark, it makes my stomach sink. It’s like looking up at the gallows…

If the upper level of Brown Auditorium is ominous, the basement is downright eerie, even with the lights on. It feels like a scene you’d see when you google “Images with Elegiac Auras,” if that makes any sense. It’s simultaneously huge but claustrophobic. Even when it’s bathed in fluorescent light, it feels creepy. And most ominously, when you walk in between the massive racks of costumes, you feel like something is about to reach out and grab you…

Maybe it’s just me, but there’s something seriously wrong there. When I’m with others, it feels like anywhere else. But when I go there by myself, I just can’t shake this horrible, ominous feeling…Something isn’t right.

1 – The Basement of Beeghly 

            Beeghly stands between Hess and The Hoffman Student Union; an unusually out-of-place building on campus. It stands short, dark, narrow, and tall, like a haunted house. As I scan my keycard to get in, I get this nauseous feeling. 

I know I’m not welcome, even though I have every right to be there. 

            On the walls, pictures of McPherson’s bygone days hang. The photos would seem very sweet anywhere else, but in Beeghly, the eyes follow you… They track your every moment, and you only notice in your peripheral vision. 

As I turn towards the basement, I get the odd feeling that I should leave. There’s nothing down there, but even so, it feels like I’m stepping down somewhere I don’t belong. The odd feeling persists, as I slowly descend the stairs. It calls to mind many things for me. The ominous tales of Edgar Allen Poe I’d read for my high school English courses, the slasher movies, where a girl like me would die first, but most notably, the line “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here…”

Before I realize it, I’m running out. The creepy scenes become blurred, foggy flashes, as I escape from nothing.

Overall, in between the grates on the pathways, and the basement of Beeghly, there’s nothing to be afraid of on campus. Or…is there?

Happy Halloween, everyone! Stay safe and don’t get up to any trouble!